


Red

by voiceoftreas0n



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 07:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12476824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voiceoftreas0n/pseuds/voiceoftreas0n
Summary: Keith knew that it wasn’t the only color there was, but it was all he saw.





	Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hypatheticallyspeaking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypatheticallyspeaking/gifts).



For as long as Keith could remember, all he could see was red. **  
**

He knew that it wasn’t the only color there was, but it was all he saw.

The string on his smallest finger extended from the window far out into the world before him, connecting him to someone. Somewhere.  

Once, he tried pulling by opening and closing his pinky. The thread shifted with every move. 

There wasn’t a response.

* * *

“It’s a gift,” he remembered his mother cooing to him.

But Keith knew there was power in it if the string between his mother and father was any better indication.

He remembers.  

But he also remembers Mom leaving, and the string from his father’s end never really disappearing years later.

And soon enough Dad was gone too, taking the thread along with him.

* * *

The only reason why Keith hated crowded places was because of the mess of strings the people left behind. Bustling towns were like spider webs with everyone moving to and fro, and it was a pain to look at anyone who somehow got wrapped up in the chaos of thread.    

The Galaxy Garrison was no better.

In his first year alone, Keith had seen threads tangle and disappear and reappear.

Couples broke up and people fell in love so often that Keith figured that maybe fate wasn’t as clear-cut as anyone would have thought.

But not once did he feel a tug on his own string, only ever seeing it move with the breeze or with every step he took.

Then he also figured that that shouldn’t really matter because he had other, more pressing matters to attend to.

No matter how much he hated class.

* * *

Though Keith could’ve sworn he felt the smallest of pulls the day before the Kerberos Launch.

Half a year later he realized it didn’t really matter then, either.

Nothing else did, except for the shack and Shiro’s disappearance and the insistent tug on his heart that there was something more to the desert that he’s not seeing.

At least that was a pull he was completely sure of.

* * *

When Keith met Hunk and Lance, he found it weird that their strings pointed  _upwards_ rather than sideways. Had they been in the Garrison building he’d have chalked it up to their match being on the floor above them but they were  _outdoors_ and Hunk’s and Lance’s strings extended far up into the sky above them.

It didn’t make sense.

It wasn’t until after they blasted far up into the atmosphere in the Blue Lion and went through the wormhole that Keith realized fate was weirder than anything he ever could’ve imagined.

* * *

Somehow, forming Voltron lead to more tugs on his end, despite him never seeing the other.

There was an insistent burn on his left pinky when Pidge first said she needed to leave.

Then, it didn’t matter because Voltron needed to be  _complete_ and she had no right to be putting her brother and father over the rest of the universe she had just sworn to protect with him, with  _all_ of them.

He continued to ignore the tug as she walked away.

* * *

Keith felt the pull again when he heard Pidge’s voice through his helmet after he and Allura got locked out of the Castle, but he had to brush it aside because the Castle was about to be captured by Sendak and there wasn’t anything more important than preventing that from happening.

* * *

The third time it pulled, there was no imminent danger.

There was, however, the way Pidge looked at him after he welcomed her back into the team, and the tug wasn’t so much as insistent as it was comforting.

It didn’t take long for Keith to put two and two together.

However, it was strange how their string still seemed so  _long_ between them, regardless of their physical distance.

It was then that he figured there was much  _more_ about the threads he had yet to know.   

* * *

In war, you often had to make difficult decisions.

But if telling his team – no, his  _family_ – that he had to leave meant being enveloped in warmth Keith hadn’t realized he had been craving until he got it, then maybe it wasn’t so heart-wrenching of a choice after all.

“ _We’re really gonna miss you._ ”

And the arm that had wrapped tightly around his neck would be the warmth he would never shake off, not even as he went out the door.

As it closed behind him, he could’ve sworn the string pulled the hardest it ever did.

* * *

Everyone in the universe had their thread.

But it was still with genuine surprise that Keith found Kolivan’s to be dragging from the same direction as his.

Somehow it was beyond comforting to know that he wasn’t the only one in their unit who was so strongly tethered to the Castle of Lions.

* * *

People often say that their life flashes before their eyes before they die.

Keith had to digress,

If his string was the first thing he ever saw, it also ended up being the last.

He saw it float in front of him, barely distinguishable from the burning world and the battleship on his screen.

And as he closed his eyes, he could’ve sworn it faded away as it pulled one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This was originally posted on my [tumblr](hearmyvoieoftreason.tumblr.com) and is a direct sequel to [this ficlet](http://spacedorksandlions.tumblr.com/post/166506595209/kidge-1-aidbejfnjd) written by my dear friend [hypatheticallyspeaking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypatheticallyspeaking/works). 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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